HIV Names Reporting

At present, health care providers are required to report the names of patients with AIDS, but not those who are only HIV-positive. However, as a condition of receiving significant federal dollars for AIDS prevention and treatment, states have been told that they must begin reporting the names of HIV-positive patients as well. When the R.I. Department of Health introduced legislation to implement this new directive, the ACLU worked with the Department to put into place strong confidentiality safeguards in the revised law to the extent allowable by the new federal mandate. Among other things, the new statute guarantees that anonymous testing will remain available, and ensures that any name reporting is prospective only.